Two kilometres south of Steyr, Garsten Abbey was a Benedictine monastery founded in 1108 and dissolved by Joseph II in 1787. The buildings now house a prison — slightly unromantic — but the abbey church, an exuberant work of Carlo Antonio Carlone (1677–1693), is open and very much worth visiting.
The interior is a riot of high Baroque stucco and frescos, with the Madenburg masters' painted ceilings and one of Austria's finest organs. It rarely gets crowded. The town of Garsten is connected to Steyr by bus or a flat 30-minute walk.